Programme actions

techUK's Health and Social Care programme provides a forum for industry to engage with public sector stakeholders who shape the market for Health and Social Care.

The programme offers a structured environment to enable frank and open discussions about the challenges and opportunities the industry and public sector bodies face, with the objective of driving innovation and growth.

We also provide the coordination, analysis and means to formulate and articulate industry positions directly to Government.

In November 2018 we published a ‘Manifesto for Matt’, outlining our priorities for driving the digital agenda. With the support of policy makers, service providers, service users and system leaders, we will work to ensure we play our part in realising the benefits of technology enabled health and care set out in the Department for Health and Social Care’s Vision paper and the NHS Long-Term Plan.

techUK’s Health and Social Care programme has been developed with members to help them:

Develop Networks

Issue: The H+SC landscape is vast, fragmented and complex. Our members report difficulties in identifying and engaging with the right organisations and individuals to grow the industry. techUK is uniquely placed to connect our members to each other and to senior stakeholders in the H+SC market.

Develop Markets

Issue: techUK members report that capabilities, attitudes and bureaucracy are amongst the biggest barriers to engaging with the NHS and social care organisations in technology. A recent review showed that the NHS has few leaders who are trained in both clinical care and IT; as well as issues with budgetary authority, organisational clout and workforce capacity.

Required Outcome: techUK will bring together members and stakeholders to facilitate capacity building and expertise in H+SC customers, with a particular focus on the new NHS Digital Academy.

Reduce Business Risk and Cost

Issue: The Government recognises that selling to the NHS can be a slow endeavour, often requiring difficult cashflow positions and asymmetric risks for smaller companies.

Required Outcome: techUK’s members are kept informed of a) the emerging structures of the NHS and b) the rapidly changing procurement framework-landscape, so that they can benefit from initiatives to speed up and simplifying procurement in the NHS.

Timescales: A programme of work throughout the year:

We will work with NHS England to ensure that suppliers are kept up to date and have a strong voice in NHS England's HSS Framework and we will share information with members as the new structures of NHS Digital and NHS technology programmes more widely begin to emerge.

We will host an exploratory event with partners working with NHS Global Digital Exemplar sites to examine the main issues with NHS procurement (Q1-2)

Issue: Issue: The inability of healthtech systems to exchange and use electronic health information from other systems hampers the growth of the industry and the ability for new entrants and SMEs to compete. DHSC has committed to creating mandatory standards for interoperability in the NHS. techUK will work with DHSC and its arm’s length bodies to ensure that suppliers have a strong voice on the standards that are mandated and the method and timelines for doing so.

Required Outcome: techUK is viewed as a trusted authority on Interop issues and suppliers are given realistic timelines and incentives for implementing standards.

Timescales: A programme of work throughout 2019, to include:

We will hold a workshop with DHSC and suppliers in Q1 to identify the issues in mandating standards. This workshop will be the genesis of a techUK Interop Group.

We will continue to be represented on the INTEROPen board to drive forwards interoperability.

We will host our regular FHIRWorks conference in November bringing together all of the key national stakeholders in interoperability.

About techUK

techUK represents the companies and technologies that are defining today the world that we will live in tomorrow. Around 850 companies are members of techUK. Collectively they employ approximately 700,000 people, about half of all tech sector jobs in the UK. These companies range from leading FTSE 100 companies to new innovative start-ups. The majority of our members are small and medium-sized businesses.

techUK is committed to helping its members grow, by:

• Developing markets

• Developing networks

• Reducing business costs and risks

techUK is the trading name for Information Technology Telecommunications and Electronics Association, a company limited by guarantee.